<p>I’ve had a lot of laptops and I’ve never owned a laptop lock. Even if I have a #2 emergency I just grab everything, stick it in my bag, and it goes to the bathroom with me. XD Why would you leave your laptop sitting around in the library? Seems pretty silly. </p>
<p>Admissions of guilt from a 24 year old college student:
I do the whole fitted sheet + comforter thing lol
I clean my desk twice a day and my floor about twice a week.
My printer gets light to moderate usage and is a large, fairly expensive canon
I have several computers and no time to play around with game consoles
I DO use lots of laundry detergent. </p>
<p>^ By the way, I highly recommend renting apartments with convenient laundry. You must remember how much it sucks to have to wait for hours at a laundry mat Splitting a pad with in-apartment laundry machines?! That’s a must have if it’s available <3</p>
<p>I don’t do blankets, but I’d guess that some people like sleeping on top of their comforter the same reason I like taking naps that way… if you have a hard mattress it gives the illusion the bed is softer lol. </p>
<p>The last time I went to a hotel (fairly recently, I might add), I was also kinda horrified at the constraint of the sheet tightly tucked under the mattress. Yikes! I’m too tall for that </p>
<p>^ THAT is why I don’t use a top sheet actually. My bed is too short - either my feet hang off the end or when I wake up my pillows are on the floor behind the bed. Usually both. </p>
<p>I have only once ever purchased a “set” of pajamas. BTW: You’re only a failure as a parent if your kids go out in public wearing them in a normal situation by choice xD</p>
<p>Okay. I have spent enough time in libraries, public places, and various eateries (Panera, Starbucks, local coffee joints). I have left my laptop, charger, some textbooks, and my bag sitting there for maybe up to 5 minutes. Never have I had anything stolen. If I feel like I’m in a sketchy place I ask someone to watch my stuff. I’ve done this on and off my college campus. Maybe mine is safer than others? I don’t know.</p>
<p>Or maybe you’re just waaaaay too confident in the other people around you? I wouldn’t trust a stranger with my stuff lol. Shoot, I wouldn’t trust quite a few things with my friends either.</p>
<p>Because they can be cut with wire cutters or the table can be lifted to unsecure them in about ten seconds if anybody REALLY wants to steal it while you’re in the bathroom, and at least for me our door locks automatically when it’s shut and we never left it open. Plus there was nothing to lock it to that couldn’t be lifted anyhow besides the bed frame, and keeping the computer shackled to the bed frame was not the most convenient thing in the world.</p>
<p>Some will disagree with me, but I think the loft is useless. My daughter didn’t use one, and her life was so much easier. When we moved her in, we used bed lifts and then put 3 flat plastic storage containers underneath. She made her bed every morning and then used the bed as her “couch”. She didn’t like the idea of sleeping 6 ft above the floor. Her roommate did the same. Visitors to their room would always comment on how spacious their room was.</p>
<p>^ I recall doing the same thing with 4 cinder blocks…put it up high enough to fit a little under it without being too high and needing to climb a ladder etc to get into bed…
Plus at the end of the yr, the cinder blocks go into the trash</p>
<p>Ok, have not seen this item as a must have or a must not…
What about an air mattress? Something for a friend to sleep on from another college when they come to visit…
Do I send one with my S in August for him to keep in his room (compressed, of course!) for when it’s needed - he is objecting to this, OR, do I just have him keep a sleeping bag somewhere around, and it can double for him to take to a friend’s school for himself??
Maybe I just answered my own question…</p>
<p>Just asked D what she took to college and never used. Her reply: my sewing kit. (Dang, and we went to several stores to find it, too!)</p>
<p>Asked her if she used her laptop lock: “Of course, that’s a given.” She takes her laptop to the library and to classes to take notes.</p>
<p>(S, on the other hand, never took his laptop to class).</p>
<p>
Many kids buy futons. You can get a cheap one from Target for about $100. D lofted her bed and put the futon under it - many, many kids do this. Friends who visited slept on the futon.</p>
<p>I kept a sleeping bag in my room-- I ended up using it in the winter because our room was freezing cold for several weeks before they got the heat going. Air mattresses take up too much space, compressed or not, and I wouldn’t have had enough floor space for one once inflated anyway. </p>
<p>I ended up buying a sofa bed eventually for my own use.</p>
<p>I was wondering about a safe, too. My D will have a small amount of jewelry–nothing big but perhaps pearls for sorority events–so we wondered whether she needed a safe.</p>
<p>In terms of the safe, I’m sending a son, no jewelry but maybe his passport, credit card on my account for emergencies, etc. Maybe a camera. I think I remember someone else on CC (might even have been earlier in this thread) saying their kid used the safe as an organizational device – all their “important papers” and other small valuables were kept in there, so they never lost track of where they were.</p>
<p>My D’s dorm also had a lockable cabinet for valuables - bring your own padlock. I don’t know if she used it - but I told myself that she did. And nothing was stolen, so my wishful thinking worked.</p>
<p>No loft allowed where my D is headed…we opted for risers since they were allowed. Loved the idea of using thrift store luggage to carry stuff to college. Great recycling.</p>
<p>rodney: if they don’t fit elsewhere, you don’t get to have them. I had no choice but to loft my second year, with the desk and dresser under my bed, because there wasn’t enough room for the university provided furniture otherwise much less anything else, and it was a big pain in the ass for that reason. I had no storage space for boxes of any kind.</p>
<p>Depending on how big the boxes you’re talking about are, you might be able to put the futon off the wall a bit and fit some boxes back there.</p>
<p>If you arrive by car, I recommend leaf bags instead of luggage. A collapsable duffel bag suitcase is best for returning by plane for Thanksgiving etc, with wheels if possible. Kids from far away at Duke and Vandy donate the contents of their rooms at the end of the year and raise a lot of money that way for charity…big pile of lumber from Lofts and also microwaves and fridges, lamps etc. This sort of tent sale is common on college campuses today. Once you evaluate cost of a storage unit shared with friends vs cost of gas and driving and hotels, just giving up your room stuff starts to look viable. I recommend not buying storage boxes till you get in the room. Trips to Target and Bed Bath and Beyond make more sense once you have arranged the room furniture. And the old fashioned trunks from days gone by are of no use anymore although the kids did take them to Scout Camps.</p>
<p>I was surprised at the huge pile of stuff in the lobby on move out day. Big tbs, matching bedding,shelving,xbox console, futons, etc. They do the same thing and have a yard sale in the fall for charity. If you are traveling far away, then I can see where that would be best. We are only 3 hours away so brought all our stuff home. I couldn’t see spending all that money AGAIN next year on a lot of the same stuff.</p>
<p>Things that came home unused: Yes, to my horror, the second set of sheets. He said it was easier to stripnthe bed, wash them, & put them back on all at once. Lot’s of snacks, cleaning supplies, & desk supplies. He did use the printer a lot.</p>
Splitting a pad with in-apartment laundry machines?! That’s a must have if it’s available <3</p>